I’ve heard a lot of talk about “pivoting” in the past few weeks and originally I was on board.  The idea that we all need to shift gears until this passes and then go back to business as usual made sense when it appeared to be a short pause.  But now with no clear end in sight and devastation of our economy, my hope for that actually happening is fading away quicker by the day and I no longer think that is the best strategy.  In basketball terms, a pivot suggests that you still have one foot planted, while you rotate with the other.  The official definition says; “The central point or pin on which a mechanism turns or oscillates.”  The idea that we should keep our beliefs rooted in the past and simply turn another direction when the landscape has drastically changed, has given me cause for concern.  Especially for those of us in the business of catering events for large groups of people.

So what do we do?  I believe that we have to begin designing our future and take matters into our own hands.  It’s time to pick up that “pivot” foot and run toward what we will be in the future.  This is an incredibly difficult situation that we are in through no fault of our own.  So it’s easy to bemoan how unfair this is.  What is hard is to take action on the choices we are faced with every day and move forward leaving the past… well… in the past.  Those that are waiting for everything to go back to normal or merely distracting themselves in the short term are going to be left behind.  The economy and the event industry will feel the effects of this for quite some time and it’s doubtful the the lights will turn back on as quickly as they went off. 

This situation has provided so many of us with a reset and a chance to evaluate our businesses.  An opportunity to scrutinize what we do, who we do it with, who we serve, how we execute, how we work, and how we impact our community.  I believe this is our chance to reinvent who we want to be as businesses and as leaders.  I’m not suggesting that we can’t take lessons learned from the past with us, but it’s time to let go of assumptions and common beliefs that may not be true in the future.  Great businesses have an ability to adapt to a changing landscape of events, regulations, trends, technology, fears and preferences.  It’s not about knowing what the future will look like, it’s about preparing yourself to take advantage of the opportunities when they arise.

I wish I had a crystal ball and knew what things would look like post Covid-19.  Yes, at some point we will be able to freely leave our houses again, we’ll be able to gather in groups and hopefully the world will have a need for catered events.  But when that happens, I’m not sure things will ever go back to the way they were and if they do, I fear it won’t be anytime soon.  Are you stuck trying to “pivot” while waiting until that happens?  Or is it time for you to start running toward the future and reinventing your business to thrive?